PAX Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Position in BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK)

PAX Financial Group LLC decreased its position in shares of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) by 22.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 597 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 172 shares during the period. PAX Financial Group LLC’s holdings in BlackRock were worth $612,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. United Bank grew its stake in shares of BlackRock by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 1,121 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,064,000 after buying an additional 12 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in BlackRock in the third quarter worth about $66,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in BlackRock by 21.9% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 10,192 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,678,000 after acquiring an additional 1,834 shares during the last quarter. Texas Capital Bank Wealth Management Services Inc purchased a new stake in BlackRock during the third quarter valued at approximately $207,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of BlackRock by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 373,505 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $354,647,000 after purchasing an additional 25,755 shares during the last quarter. 80.69% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other BlackRock news, Director J. Richard Kushel sold 10,000 shares of BlackRock stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $1,072.64, for a total value of $10,726,400.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 68,433 shares in the company, valued at $73,403,973.12. The trade was a 12.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold 20,430 shares of company stock valued at $21,234,629 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on BLK. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods decreased their price target on BlackRock from $1,225.00 to $1,160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of BlackRock from $1,053.00 to $1,046.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of BlackRock from $1,150.00 to $1,200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of BlackRock from $1,215.00 to $1,275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on BlackRock in a research note on Saturday, March 29th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $1,130.85.

BlackRock Price Performance

Shares of BLK stock opened at $822.38 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a twelve month low of $745.55 and a twelve month high of $1,084.22. The company has a current ratio of 5.23, a quick ratio of 5.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $968.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $991.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $127.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.28.

BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The asset manager reported $11.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.52 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $5.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.21% and a return on equity of 16.32%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $9.66 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that BlackRock, Inc. will post 47.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BlackRock Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 24th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $5.21 per share. This represents a $20.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. This is a positive change from BlackRock’s previous quarterly dividend of $5.10. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. BlackRock’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.62%.

BlackRock Profile

BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks.